Peter Harbison traces political influence in the 12th-century foundation of the Cistercian Abbey at Jerpoint, County Kilkenny, where extensive conservation by the OPW is in progress
Barbarous people … Christians in name, but pagans’ was St Bernard of Clairvaux’s description of the Irish in his Life of St Malachy of Armagh (c.1150) who, St Bernard said, had been sent to his Northern Ireland diocese of Connor ‘not to men, but to beasts’. Some of these views may possibly have come from Malachy himself or from monks in his entourage but, in a recent re-assessment by Donnchadh 6 Corrain, 1 they ‘made Malachy into a saint,but did his country grave wrong’ – one which had its ancient culture and social traditions that were anathema to the new generation of reformers.
To the Irish in America, the irony of using funds from a Fenian club to buy a set of Malton views depicting Georgian Dublin was not apparent, writes Christian Dupont
Linda Brunker’s female avatars affirm nature and spirit. Mark Ewart talks to the Irish sculptor as she departs California for France
The magic realism of Sweeney’s transformation from man to bird continues Gabhann Dunne’s association with the natural world, writes Susan Campbell